Dumpling in a Hanky

As 2014 changes into 2015, my employment will be changing too, as I'll shortly be starting another role in a new workplace. Unfortunately, in October last year my previous employer went into administration, and although it was quickly bought out of administration by another law firm, there weren't any roles available for the library staff at the new firm. So it was time to launch into the job hunt again! I have the dubious honour of being the only person to have worked for the only two law firms in Scotland to go into administration, and at one point it was suggested to me that I could make a career out of approaching all the remaining firms and asking them to pay me not to work for them... ;) I did think that once again, I would have to leave the legal sector to find employment, but some fortunate timings mean that I will be staying in the sector, although I will be moving away from working directly with solicitors. My new role is also a permanent one, and as stable as any j...

Now, I thought I'd come up against every permutation of a bad application process. There's the traditional application form that has been created in Word, and looks very pretty, but goes to pieces when you actually try and fill it in - the text boxes that are too small to hold the information, but the size can't be adjusted; the tables that have margins set beyond the edge of the page so your text disappears; the layouts that dissolve into incoherency and random page-straddling tables when anything is actually typed into the form. Or the forms that only allow for 3 previous roles, and are set so that no extra areas can be inserted. Or the job that was advertised once with a strict warning that the guidance notes must be used to complete the form...without the guidance notes available (that one was re-advertised, and the epically complex guidance notes magically appeared that time). Or the company that required application forms to be printed, signed, and scanned for submiss...

Ah, times change, and things happen, whether you're prepared or not. So, last month, I unexpectedly ended up having to look for new employment. Having been pretty happy and settled in my old workplace for almost 8 years, I didn't really have much in the way of recent experience of looking for work...now, I seem to have plenty! Luckily, I'm finding that there are actually quite a lot of interesting vacancies out there, and plenty of roles where I think "ohhh, that would be great to be able to do" and I'm keen to apply for. I have such a wide range of interests, that I'm finding posts in all sorts of sectors where I think "yeah, I'd really enjoy doing that", so perhaps this is my chance to explore some other professional areas. Silver linings, an' all that? However, what I've also found is that some employers are not very good at creating a coherent and easily navigable recruitment process. So, here are some Do's and Don'ts, a...